...how
can women be just or
generous, when they are slaves of injustice?

A VINDICATION OFTHE RIGHTS OF WOMENby Mary Wollstonecraft

Chapter XIIISome Instances of the Folly
which the Ignorance of Women Generates; with Concluding Reflections on
the Moral Improvement that a Revolution in Female Manners Might Naturally
be Expected to Produce

There are many follies in some degree peculiar
to women - sins against reason of commission as well as of omission - but
all flowing from ignorance or prejudice. I shall only point out such as
appear to be particularly injurious to their moral character. And in animadverting
on them, I wish especially to prove that the weakness of mind and body,
which men have endeavoured, impelled by various motives, to perpetuate,
prevents their discharging the peculiar duty of their sex; for when weakness
of body will not permit them to suckle their children, and weakness of
mind makes them spoil their tempers, is woman in a natural state?

SECTION I

One glaring instance of the weakness which proceeds
from ignorance first claims attention, and calls for severe reproof. In
this metropolis a number of lurking leeches infamously gain a subsistence
by practising on the credulity of women, pretending to cast nativities,
to use the technical phrase; and many females who, proud of their rank
and fortune, look down on the vulgar with sovereign contempt, show by this
credulity that the distinction is arbitrary, and that they have not sufficiently
cultivated their minds to rise above vulgar prejudices.
Women, because they have not been led to consider
the knowledge of their duty as the one thing necessary to know, or to live
in the present moment by the discharge of it, are very anxious to peep
into futurity to learn what they have to expect to render life interesting,
and to break the vacuum of ignorance.

I must be allowed to expostulate
seriously with the ladies who follow these idle inventions; for ladies,
mistresses of families, are not ashamed to drive in their own carriages
to door of the cunning man. [1] And if any of them
should use this work, I entreat them to answer to their own hearts the
following questions, not forgetting that they are in presence of God:

Do you believe that there is but one God, and that
He is powerful, wise, and good?

Do you believe that all things were created by
Him, and that all beings are dependent on Him?

Do you rely on His wisdom, so conspicuous in His
works, and your own frame, and are you convinced that He has ordered things
which do not come under the cognisance of your senses, in the same perfect
harmony, to fulfil His designs?

Do you acknowledge that the power of looking into
futurity, I seeing things that are not, as if they were, is an attribute
of the Creator? And should He, by an impression on the minds His creatures,
think fit to impart to them some event hid the shades of time yet unborn,
to whom would the secret revealed by immediate inspiration? The opinion
of ages will answer this question - to reverend old men, to people distinguished
for eminent piety.

The oracles of old were thus delivered to the service
of the God who was supposed to inspire them.
The glare of worldly pomp which surrounded these impostors,
the respect paid to them by artful politicians, who knew how to avail themselves
of this useful engine to bend the necks of the strong under the dominion
of the cunning, spread a sacred mysterious veil of sanctity over their
lies and abominations. Impressed by such solemn devotional parade, a Greek
or Roman lady might be excused, if she inquired of the oracle, when she
was anxious to pry into futurity, or inquire about some dubious event,
and her inquiries, however contrary to reason, could not be reckoned impious.
But can the professors of Christianity ward off that
imputation? Can a Christian suppose that the favourites of the Most High,
the highly favoured, would be obliged to lurk in disguise, and practise
the most dishonest tricks to cheat silly women out of the money, which
the poor cry for in vain?

Say not that such questions are an insult to common
sense, it is your own conduct, O ye foolish women! which throws an odium
on your sex.
And these reflections should make you shudder at your
thoughtlessness and irrational devotion. For I do not suppose that all
of you laid aside your religion, such as it is, when you entered those
mysterious dwellings. Yet, as I have throughout supposed myself talking
to ignorant women - for ignorant ye are in the most emphatical sense of
the word - it would be absurd to reason with you on the egregious folly
of desiring to know what the Supreme Wisdom has concealed.

Probably you would not understand me were I to
attempt to show you that it would be absolutely inconsistent with the grand
purpose of life, that of rendering human creatures wise and virtuous; and
that, were it sanctioned by God, it would disturb the order established
in creation; and if it be not sanctioned by God, do you expect to hear
truth?
Can events be foretold, events which have not yet
assumed a body to become subject to mortal inspection, can they be foreseen
by a vicious worldling, who pampers his appetites by preying on the foolish
ones?

Perhaps, however, you devoutly believe in the devil,
and imagine, to shift the question, that he may assist his votaries; but,
if really respecting the power of such a being, an enemy to goodness and
to God, can you go to church after having been under such an obligation
to him?

From these delusions to those still more fashionable
deceptions, practised by the whole tribe of magnetisers, the transition
is very natural. With respect to them, it is equally proper to ask women
a few questions.

Do you know anything of the construction of the
human frame? if not, it is proper that you should be told what every child
ought to know, that when its admirable economy has been disturbed by intemperance
or indolence, I speak not of violent disorders, but of chronical diseases,
it must be brought into a healthy state again, by slow degrees, and if
the functions of life have not been materially injured, regimen, another
word for temperance, air, exercise, and a few medicines, prescribed by
persons who have studied the human body, are the only human means, yet
discovered, of recovering that inestimable blessing health, that will bear
investigation.

Do you then believe that these magnetisers, who,
by hocus pocus tricks, pretend to work a miracle, are delegated by God,
or assisted by the solver of all these kind of difficulties - the devil?

Do they, when they put to flight, as it is said,
disorders that have baffled the powers of medicine, work in conformity
to the light of reason? or, do they effect these wonderful cures by supernatural
aid?

By a communication, an adept may answer, with the
world of spirits. A noble privilege, it must be allowed. Some of the ancients
mention familiar demons, who guarded them from danger by kindly intimating,
we cannot guess in what manner, when any danger was nigh; or, pointed out
what they ought to undertake. Yet the men who laid claim to this privilege,
out of the order of nature, insisted that it was the reward, or consequence,
of superior temperance and piety.
But the present workers of wonders are not raised
above their fellows by superior temperance or sanctity.
They do not cure for the love of God, but money. These
are the priests of quackery, though it is true they have not the convenient
expedient of selling masses for souls in purgatory, or churches where they
can display crutches, and models of limbs made sound by a touch or a word.

I am not conversant with the technical terms, or
initiated into the arcana, therefore I may speak improperly; but it is
clear that men who will not conform to the law of reason, and earn a subsistence
in an honest way, by degrees, are very fortunate in becoming acquainted
with such obliging spirits. We cannot, indeed, give them credit for either
great sagacity or goodness, else they would have chosen more noble instruments,
when they wished to show themselves the benevolent friends of man.

It is, however, little short of blasphemy to pretend
to such powers!

From the whole tenor of the dispensations of Providence,
it appears evident to sober reason, that certain vices produce certain
effects; and can anyone so grossly insult the wisdom of God, as to suppose
that a miracle will be allowed to disturb His general laws, to restore
to health the intemperate and vicious, merely to enable them to pursue
the same course with impunity?
Be whole, and sin no more, said Jesus. And, are greater
miracles to be performed by those who do not follow His footsteps, who
healed the body to reach the mind?

The mentioning of the name of Christ, after such
vile impostors, may displease some of my readers - I respect their warmth;
but let them not forget that the followers of these delusions bear His
name, and profess to be the disciples of Him, who said, by their works
we should know who were the children of God or the servants of sin.
I allow that it is easier to touch the body of a saint,
or to be magnetised, than to restrain our appetites or govern our passions;
but health of body or mind can only be recovered by these means, or we
make the Supreme Judge partial and revengeful.

Is He a man that He should change, or punish out
of resentment?
He - the common father, wounds but to heal, say reason,
and our irregularities producing certain consequences, we are forcibly
shown the nature of vice: that thus learning to know good from evil, by
experience, we may hate one and love the other, in proportion to the wisdom
which we attain.
The poison contains the antidote; and we either reform
our evil habits and cease to sin against our own bodies, to use the forcible
language of Scripture, or a premature death, the punishment of sin, snaps
the thread of life.

Here an awful stop is put to our inquiries.
But, why should I conceal my sentiments?
Considering the attributes of God, I believe that
whatever punishment may follow, will tend, like the anguish of disease,
to show the malignity of vice, for the purpose of reformation. Positive
punishment appears so contrary to the nature of God, discoverable in all
His works, and in our own reason, that I could sooner believe that the
Deity paid no attention to the conduct of men, than that He punished without
the benevolent design of reforming.

To suppose only that an all-wise and powerful Being,
as good as He is great, should create a being foreseeing, that after fifty
or sixty years of feverish existence, it would be plunged into never-ending
woe - is blasphemy. On what will the worm feed that is never to die? on
folly, on ignorance, say ye - I should blush indignantly at drawing the
natural conclusion could I insert it, and wish to withdraw myself from
the wing of my God! On such a supposition, I speak with reverence, He would
be a consuming fire.
We should wish, though vainly, to fly from His presence
when fear absorbed love, and darkness involved all His counsels!

I know that many devout people boast of submitting
to the will of God blindly, as to an arbitrary sceptre or rod, on the same
principle as the Indians worship the devil. In other words, like people
in the common concerns of life, they homage to power, and cringe under
the foot that can crush them.
Rational religion, on the contrary, is a submission
to the will of a being so perfectly wise, that all he wills must be directed
by the proper motive - must be reasonable.

And, if thus we respect God, can we give credit
to mysterious insinuations, which insult His laws? can we believe, though
it should stare us in the face, that He would work a miracle to authorise
confusion by sanctioning an error?
Yet we must either allow these impious conclusions,
or treat with contempt every promise to restore health to a diseased body
by supernatural means, or to foretell the incidents that can only be foreseen
by God.

SECTION II

Another instance of that feminine weakness of character,
often produced by a confined education, is a romantic twist of the mind,
which has been very properly termed sentimental.
Women subjected by ignorance to their sensations,
and only taught to look for happiness in love, refine on sensual feelings
and adopt metaphysical notions respecting that passion, which lead them
shamefully to neglect the duties of life, and frequently in the midst of
these sublime refinements they plump into actual vice.

These are the women who are amused by the reveries
of the stupid novelists, who, knowing little of human nature, work up stale
tales, and describe meretricious scenes, all retailed in a sentimental
jargon, which equally tend to corrupt the taste, and draw the heart aside
from its daily duties. I do not mention the understanding, because never
having been exercised, its slumbering energies rest inactive, like the
lurking particles of fire which are supposed universally to pervade matter.

Females, in fact, denied all political privileges,
and not allowed, as married women, excepting in criminal cases, a civil
existence, have their attention naturally drawn from the interest of the
whole community to that of the minute parts, though the private duty
of any member of society must be very imperfectly performed when not connected
with the general good.
The mighty business of female life is to please, and
restrained from entering into more important concerns by political and
civil oppression, sentiments become events, and reflection deepens what
it should, and would have effaced, if the understanding had been allowed
to take a wider range.

But, confined to trifling employments, they naturally
imbibe opinions which the only kind of reading calculated to interest an
innocent frivolous mind inspires. Unable to grasp anything great, is it surprising
that they find the reading of history a very dry task, and disquisitions
addressed to the understanding intolerably tedious, and almost unintelligible?
Thus are they necessarily dependent on the novelist
for amusement.
Yet, when I exclaim against novels, I mean when contrasted
with those works which exercise the understanding and regulate the imagination.
For any kind of reading I think better than leaving
a blank still a blank, because the mind must receive a degree of enlargement
and obtain a little strength by a slight exertion of its thinking powers;
besides, even the productions that are only addressed to the imagination,
raise the reader a little above the gross gratification of appetites, to
which the mind has not given a shade of delicacy.

This observation is the result of experience; for
I have known several notable women, and one in particular, who was a very
good woman - as good as such a narrow mind would allow her to be, who took
care that her daughters (three in number) should never see a novel. As
she was a woman of fortune and fashion, they had various masters to attend
them, and a sort of menial governess to watch their footsteps. From their
masters they learned how tables, chairs, etc., were called in French and
Italian; but as the few books thrown in their way were far above their
capacities, or devotional, they neither acquired ideas nor sentiments,
and passed their time, when not compelled to repeat words, in dressing,
quarrelling with each other, or conversing with their maids by stealth,
till they were brought into company as marriageable.

Their mother, a widow, was busy in the meantime
in keeping up her connections, as she termed a numerous acquaintance, lest
her girls should want a proper introduction into the great world.
And these young ladies, with minds vulgar in every
sense of the word, and spoiled tempers, entered life puffed up with notions
of their own consequence, and looking down with contempt on those who could
not vie with them in dress and parade.

With respect to love, Nature, or their Nurses,
had taken care to teach them the physical meaning of the word; and, as
they had few topics of conversation, and fewer refinements of sentiment,
they expressed their gross wishes not in very delicate phrases, when they
spoke freely, talking of matrimony.

Could these girls have been injured by the perusal
of novels? I almost forgot a shade in the character of one of them; she
affected a simplicity bordering on folly, and with a simper would utter
the most immodest remarks and questions, the full meaning of which she
had learned whilst secluded from the world, and to speak in her mother's
presence, who governed with a hand; they were all educated, as she prided
herself, in a most exemplary manner, and read their chapters before breakfast,
never touching a silly novel.

This only one instance; but I recollect many other
women not led by degrees to proper studies, and not permitted to choose
for themselves, have indeed been overgrown children; or have obtained,
by mixing in the world, a little of what is termed common sense; that is,
a distinct manner of seeing common occurrences, as they stand detached;
but what deserves name of intellect, the power of gaining, general or abstract,
or even intermediate ones, was out of the question.
Their minds were quiescent, and when they were not
roused by sensible objects and employments of that kind, they were spirited,
would cry, or go to sleep.

When, therefore, I advise my sex not to read such
flimsy works, it is to induce them to read something superior; for I coincide
in opinion with a sagacious man, who, having a daughter and niece under
his care, pursued a very different with each.

The niece, who had considerable abilities, had,
before she left to his guardianship, been indulged in desultory reading.
Her he endeavoured to lead, and did lead to history and moral essays; but
his daughter, whom a fond weak mother had indulged, and who consequently
was averse to everything like fornication, he allowed to read novels; and
used to justify his conduct by saying, that if she ever attained a relish
for reading them, he should have some foundation to work upon; and that
erroneous opinions were better than none at all.

In fact, the female mind has been so totally neglected,
that knowledge was only to be acquired from this muddy source, till from
reading novels some women of superior talents learned to despise them.

The best method, I believe, that can be adopted
to correct a fondness for novels is to ridicule them: not indiscriminately,
for then it would have little effect; but, if a judicious person, with
some turn for humour, would read several to a young girl and point out
both by tones, and apt comparisons with pathetic incidents and heroic characters
in history, how foolishly and ridiculously they caricatured human nature,
just opinions might substituted instead of romantic sentiments.

In one respect, however, the
majority of both sexes resemble, and equally show a want of taste and modesty.
Ignorant women, forced to be chaste to preserve their reputation, allow
their imagination to revel in the unnatural and meretricious scenes sketched
by the novel writers of the day, slighting as insipid the sober dignity,
and matron graces of history, [2] whilst men carry
the same vitiated taste into life, and fly for amusement to the wanton,
from the unsophisticated charms of virtue, and the grave respectability
of sense.

Besides, the reading of novels makes women, and
particularly ladies of fashion, very fond of using strong expressions and
superlatives in conversation; and, though the dissipated artificial life
which they lead prevents their cherishing any strong legitimate passion,
the language of passion in affected tones slips for ever from their glib
tongues, and every trifle produces those phosphoric bursts which only mimic
in the dark the flame of passion.

SECTION III

Ignorance and the mistaken cunning that nature
sharpens in weak heads as a principle of self-preservation, render women
very fond of dress, and produce all the vanity which such a fondness may
naturally be expected to generate, to the exclusion of emulation and magnanimity.

I agree with Rousseau that the physical part of
the art of pleasing consists in ornaments, and for that very reason I should
guard girls against the contagious fondness for dress so common to weak
women, that they may not rest in the physical part. Yet, weak are the women
who imagine that they can long please without the aid of the mind, or,
in other words, without the moral art of pleasing.
But the moral art, if it be not a profanation to use
the word art, when alluding to the grace which is an effect of virtue,
and not the motive of action, is never to be found with ignorance; the
sportiveness of innocence, so pleasing to refined libertines of both sexes,
is widely different in its essence from this superior gracefulness.

A strong inclination for external ornaments ever
appears in barbarous states, only the men not the women adorn themselves;
for where women are allowed to be so far on a level with men, society has
advanced, at least, one step in civilisation.

The attention to dress, therefore, which has been
thought a sexual propensity, I think natural to mankind. But I ought to
express myself with more precision. When the mind is not sufficiently opened to take
pleasure in reflection, the body will be adorned with sedulous care; and
ambition will appear in tattooing or painting it.

So far is this first inclination carried, that
even the hellish yoke of slavery cannot stifle the savage desire of admiration
which the black heroes inherit from both their parents, for all the hardly
earned savings of a slave are commonly expended in a little tawdry finery.
And I have seldom known a good male or female servant that was not particularly
fond of dress. Their clothes were their riches; and, I argue from analogy,
that the fondness for dress, so extravagant in females, arises from the
same cause - want of cultivation of mind.
When men meet they converse about business, politics,
or literature; but, says Swift, "how naturally
do women apply their hands to each other's lappets and ruffles."
And very natural is it - for they have not any business
to interest them, have not a taste for literature, and they find politics
dry, because they have not acquired a love for mankind by turning their
thoughts to the grand pursuits that exalt the human race, and promote general
happiness.

Besides, various are the paths to power and fame
which by accident or choice men pursue, and though they jostle against
each other, for men of the same profession are seldom friends, yet there
is a much greater number of their fellow-creatures with whom they never
clash.
But women are very differently situated with respect
to each other - for they are all rivals.

Before marriage it is their business to please
men; and after, with a few exceptions, they follow the same scene with
all the persevering pertinacity of instinct. Even virtuous women never
forget their sex in company, for they are for ever trying to make themselves
agreeable.
A female beauty, and a male wit, appear to be equally
anxious to draw the attention of the company to themselves; and the animosity
of contemporary wits is proverbial.

Is it then surprising, that when the sole ambition
of woman centres in beauty, and interest gives vanity additional force
perpetual rivalships should ensue? They are all running the same race,
and would rise above the virtue of mortals, if they did not view each other
with a suspicious and even envious eye.

An immoderate fondness for dress, for pleasure,
and for sway, are the passions of savages; the passions that occupy those
uncivilised beings who have not yet extended the dominion of the mind,
or even learned to think with the energy necessary to concatenate that
abstract train of thought which produces principles.
And that women from their education and the present
state of civilised life, are in the same condition, cannot, I think be
controverted.
To laugh at them then, or satirise the follies of
a being who is never to be allowed to act freely from the light of her
own reason, is as absurd as cruel; for, that they who are taught blindly
to obey authority, will endeavour cunningly to elude it, is most natural
and certain.

Yet let it be proved that they ought to obey man
implicitly, and I shall immediately agree that it is woman's duty to cultivate
a fondness for dress, in order to please, and a propensity to cunning for
her own preservation.

The virtues, however, which are supported by ignorance
must ever be wavering - the house built on sand could not endure a storm.
It is almost unnecessary to draw the inference. If women are to be made
virtuous by authority, which is a contradiction in terms, let them be immured
in seraglios and watched with a jealous eye. Fear not that the iron will
enter into their souls - for the souls that can bear such treatment are
made of yielding materials, just animated enough to give life to the body.

Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear
And best distinguished by black, brown, or fair.

The most cruel wounds will of course soon heal,
and they may still people the world, and dress to please man - all the
purpose! which certain celebrated writers have allowed that they were created
to fulfill.

SECTION IV

Women are supposed to possess more sensibility,
and even humanity, than men, and their strong attachments and instantaneous
emotions of compassion are given as proofs; but the clinging affection
of ignorance has seldom anything noble in it, and may mostly be resolved
into selfishness, as well as the affection of children and brutes. I have
known many weak women whose sensibility was entirely engrossed by their
husbands; and as for their humanity, it was very faint indeed, or rather
it was only a transient emotion of compassion.
Humanity does not consist "in
a squeamish ear," says an eminent orator, "but
belongs to the mind as well as the nerves."

But this kind of exclusive affection, though
it degrades the individual, should not be brought forward as a proof of
the inferiority of the sex, because it is the natural consequence
of confined views; for even women of superior sense, having their attention
turned to little employments, and private plans, rarely rise to heroism,
unless when spurred on by love! and love, as an heroic passion, like genius,
appears but once in an age. therefore agree with the moralist who asserts,
"that women have seldom so much generosity as
men"; and that their narrow affections, to which justice and
humanity are often sacrificed, render the sex apparently inferior, especially,
as they are commonly inspired by men; but I contend that the heart would
expand as the understanding gained strength, if women re not depressed
from their cradles.

I know that a little sensibility, and great weakness,
will produce a strong sexual attachment, and that reason must cement friendship;
consequently, I allow that more friendship is to be found in the male than
the female world, and that men have a higher sense of justice. The exclusive
affections women seem indeed to resemble Cato's most unjust love for his
country. He wished to crush Carthage, not to save Rome, but to promote
its vain-glory; and, in general, it is to similar principles that humanity
is sacrificed, for genuine duties support each other.

Besides, how can women be just or generous, when
they are slaves of injustice?

SECTION V

As the rearing of children, that is, the laying
a foundation of sound health both of body and mind in the rising generation,
has justly been insisted on as the peculiar destination of woman ignorance
that incapacitates them must be contrary to the order of things.
And I contend that their minds can take in much
more, and ought to do so, or they will never become sensible mothers.
Many men attend to the breeding of horses overlook
the management of the stable, who would, strange want of sense and feeling!
think themselves degraded by paying attention to the nursery; yet, how
many children are absolutely murdered by the ignorance of women! But when
they escape, and are destroyed neither by unnatural negligence nor blind
fondness, how few are managed properly with respect to the infant mind!
So that to break the spirit, allowed to become vicious
at home, a child is sent to school; and the methods taken there, which
must be taken to keep a number of children in order, scatter the seeds
of almost every vice in the soil thus forcibly torn up.

I have sometimes compared the struggles of these
poor children, who ought never to have felt restraint, nor would, had they
been always held in with an even hand, to the despairing plunges of a spirited
filly, which I have seen breaking on a strand: its feet sinking deeper
and deeper in the sand every time it endeavoured to throw its rider, till
at last it sullenly submitted.

I have always found horses, animals I am attached
to, very tractable when treated with humanity and steadiness, so that I
doubt whether the violent methods taken to break them, do not essentially
injure them; I am, however, certain that a child should never be thus forcibly
tamed after it had injudiciously been allowed to run wild: for every
violation of justice and reason, in the treatment of children, weakens
their reason.
And, so early do they catch a character, that the
base of the moral character, experience leads me to infer, is fixed before
their seventh year, the period during which women are allowed the sole
management of children.
Afterwards it too often happens that half the business
of education is to correct, and very imperfectly is it done, if done hastily,
the faults, which they would never have acquired if their mothers had had
more understanding.

One striking instance of the folly of women must
not be omitted.
The manner in which they treat servants in the presence
of children, permitting them to suppose that they ought to wait on them,
and bear their humours.
A child should always be made to receive assistance
from a man or woman as a favour; and, as the first lesson of independence,
they should practically be taught, by the example of their mother, not
to require that personal attendance, which it is an insult to humanity
to require, when in health; and instead of being led to assume airs of
consequence, a sense of their own weakness should first make them feel
the natural equality of man.
Yet, how frequently have I indignantly heard servants
imperiously called to put children to bed, and sent away again and again,
because master or miss hung about mamma, to stay a little longer. Thus
made slavishly to attend the little idol, all those most disgusting humours
were exhibited which characterise a spoiled child.

In short, speaking of the majority of mothers,
they leave their children entirely to the care of servants; or, because
they are their children, treat them as if they were little demi-gods though
I have always observed, that the women who thus idolise their children,
seldom show common humanity to servants, or feel the least tenderness for
any children but their own.

It is, however, these exclusive affections, and
an individual manner of seeing things, produced by ignorance, which keep
women for ever at a stand, with respect to improvement, and make many of
them dedicate their lives to their children only to weaken their bodies
and spoil their tempers, frustrating also any plan of education that a
more rational father may adopt. for unless a mother concur, the father
who restrains will ever be considered as a tyrant.

But, fulfilling the duties of a mother, a woman
with a sound constitution, may still keep her person scrupulously neat,
and assist to maintain her family, if necessary, or by reading and conversation
with both sexes, indiscriminately, improve her mind.
For Nature has so wisely ordered things, that did
women suckle their children, they would preserve their own health and there
would be such an interval between the birth of each child, that we should
seldom see a houseful of babes.
And did they pursue a plan of conduct, and not waste
their time in following the fashionable vagaries of dress, the management
of their household and children need not shut them out from literature,
or prevent their attaching themselves to a science with that steady eye
which strengthens the mind, or practising one of the fine arts that cultivate
the taste.

But, visiting to display finery, card-playing,
and balls, not to mention the idle bustle of morning trifling, draw women
from their duty to render them insignificant, to render them pleasing,
according to the present acceptation of the word, to every man but their
husband. For a round of pleasures in which the affections are not exercised,
cannot be said to improve the understanding, though it be erroneously called
seeing the world. yet the heart is rendered cold and averse to duty, by
such a senseless intercourse, which becomes necessary from habit even when
it has ceased to amuse.

But, we shall not see women affectionate till
more equality be established in society, till ranks are confounded and
women freed, neither shall we see that dignified domestic happiness, the
simple grandeur of which cannot be relished by ignorant or vitiated minds;
nor will the important task of education ever be properly begun till the
person of a woman is no longer preferred to her mind.
For it would be as wise to expect corn from tares, or figs from thistles,
as that a foolish ignorant woman should be a good mother.

SECTION VI

It is not necessary to inform the sagacious reader,
now I enter on my concluding reflections, that the discussion of this subject
merely consists in opening a few simple principles, and clearing away the
rubbish which obscured them. But, as all readers are not sagacious, I must
be allowed to add some explanatory remarks to bring the subject home to
reason - to that sluggish reason, which supinely takes opinions on trust,
and obstinately supports them to spare itself the labour of thinking.

Moralists have unanimously agreed, that unless
virtue be nursed by liberty, it will never attain due strength-
and what they say of man I extend to mankind, insisting that in all
cases morals must be fixed on immutable principles; and, that the being
cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority, but that
of reason.

To render women truly useful members of society,
I argue that they should be led, by having their understandings cultivated
on a large scale, to acquire a rational affection for their country, founded
on knowledge, because it is obvious that we are little interested about
what we do not understand.
And to render this general knowledge of due importance,
I have endeavoured to show that private duties are never properly fulfilled
unless the understanding enlarges the heart; and that public virtue is
only an aggregate of private.
But, the distinctions established in society undermine
both, by beating out the solid gold of virtue, till it becomes only the
tinsel-covering of vice; for whilst wealth renders a man more respectable
than virtue, wealth will be sought before virtue; and, whilst women's persons
are caressed, when a childish simper shows an absence of mind - the mind
will lie fallow.

Yet, true voluptuousness must proceed from the
mind - for what can equal the sensations produced by mutual affection,
supported by mutual respect?
What are the cold, or feverish caresses of appetite,
but sin embracing death, compared with the modest overflowings of a pure
heart and exalted imagination?
Yes, let me tell the libertine of fancy when he despises
understanding in woman - that the mind, which he disregards, gives life
to the enthusiastic affection from which rapture, short-lived as it is,
alone can flow! And, that, without virtue, a sexual attachment must expire
like a tallow candle in the socket, creating intolerable disgust. To prove
this, I need only observe, that men who have wasted great part of their
lives with women, and with whom they have sought for pleasure with eager
thirst, entertain the meanest opinion of the sex.
Virtue, true refiner of joy! - if foolish men were
to fright thee from earth, in order to give loose to all their appetites
without a check - some sensual wight of taste would scale the heavens to
invite thee back, to give a zest to pleasure!

That women at present are by ignorance rendered
vicious, is, I think, not to be disputed; and, that salutary effects tending
to improve mankind might be expected from a REVOLUTION in female manners,
appears, at least, with a face of probability, to rise out of the observation.
For as marriage has been termed the parent of those
endearing charities which draw man from the brutal herd, the corrupting
intercourse that wealth, idleness, and folly, produce between the sexes,
is more universally injurious to morality than all the other vices of mankind
collectively considered.
To adulterous lust the most sacred duties are sacrificed,
because before marriage, men, by a promiscuous intimacy with women, learned
to consider love as a selfish gratification - learned to separate it not
only from esteem, but from the affection merely built on habit which mixes
a little humanity with it.
Justice and friendship are also set at defiance, and
that purity of taste is vitiated which would naturally lead a man to relish
an artless display of affection rather than affected airs. But that noble
simplicity of affection, which dares to appear unadorned, has few attractions
for the libertine, though it be the charm, which by cementing the matrimonial
tie, secures to the pledges of a warmer passion the necessary parental
attention; for children will never be properly educated till friendship
subsists between parents. Virtue flies from a house divided against itself
- and a whole legion of devils take up their residence there.

The affection of husbands and wives cannot be pure
when they have so few sentiments in common, and when so little confidence
is established at home, as must be the case when their pursuits are so
different. That intimacy from which tenderness should flow, will not, cannot
subsist between the vicious.

Contending, therefore, that the sexual distinction
which men have so warmly insisted upon, is arbitrary, I have dwelt on an
observation, that several sensible men, with whom I have conversed on the
subject, allowed to be well founded; and it is simply this, that the little
chastity to be found amongst men, and consequent disregard of modesty,
tend to degrade both sexes; and further, that the modesty of women, characterised
as such, will often be only the artful veil of wantonness instead of being
the natural reflection of purity, till modesty be universally respected.

From the tyranny of man, I firmly believe, the
greater number of female follies proceed; and the cunning, which I allow
makes at present a part of their character, I likewise have repeatedly
endeavoured to prove, is produced by oppression.

Were not dissenters, for instance, a class of people,
with strict truth, characterised as cunning?
And may I not lay some stress on this fact to prove,
that when any power but reason curbs the free spirit of man, dissimulation
is practised, and the various shifts of art are naturally called forth?
Great attention to decorum, which was carried to a
degree of scrupulosity, and all that puerile bustle about trifles and consequential
solemnity, which Butler's caricature of a dissenter brings before the imagination,
shaped their persons as well as their minds in the mould of prim littleness.
I speak collectively, for I know how many ornaments in human nature have
been enrolled amongst sectaries; yet, I assert, that the same narrow prejudice
for their sect, which women have for their families, prevailed in the dissenting
part of the community, however worthy in other respects; and also that
the same timid prudence, or headstrong efforts, often disgraced the exertions
of both. oppression thus formed many of the features of their character
perfectly to coincidence with that of the oppressed half of mankind; for
is it not notorious that dissenters were, like women, fond of deliberating
together, and asking advice of each other, till by a complication of little
contrivances, some little end was brought about? A similar attention to
preserve their reputation was conspicuous in the dissenting and female
world, and was produced by a similar cause.

Asserting the rights which
women in common with men ought to contend for, I have not attempted to
extenuate their faults; but to prove them to be the natural consequence
of their education and station in society. If so, it is reasonable to suppose
that they will change their character, and correct their vices and follies,
when they are allowed to be free in a physical, moral, and civil sense.
[3]

Let woman share the rights, and she will emulate
the virtues of man; for she must grow more perfect when emancipated,
or justify the authority that chains such a weak being to her duty.
If the latter, it will be expedient to open a fresh
trade with Russia for whips: a present which a father should always make
to his son-in-law on his wedding day, that a husband may keep his whole
family in order by the same means; and without any violation of justice
reign, wielding this sceptre, sole master of his house, because he is the
only thing in it who has reason: - the divine, indefeasible earthly sovereignty
breathed into man by the Master of the universe.
Allowing this position, women have not any inherent
rights to claim; and, by the same rule, their duties vanish, for rights
and duties are inseparable.

Be just then, O ye men of understanding: and mark
not more severely what women do amiss than the vicious tricks of the horse
or the ass for whom ye provide provender - and allow her the privileges
of ignorance, to whom ye deny the rights of reason, or ye will be worse
than Egyptian task-masters expecting virtue where Nature has not given
understanding.

NOTES

[1] I once lived in the neighbourhood of one
of these men, a handsome man, and saw with surprise and indignation women,
whose appearance and attendance bespoke that rank in which females are
supposed to receive a superior education, flock to his door. RETURN TO TEXT

[2] I am not now alluding to that superiority
of mind which leads to the creation of ideal beauty, when life, surveyed
with a penetrating eye, appears a tragi-comedy, in which little can be
seen to satisfy the heart without the help of fancy. RETURN TO TEXT

[3] I had further enlarged on the advantages
which might reasonably be expected to result from an improvement in female
manners, towards the general reformation of society; but it appeared to
me that such reflections would more properly close the last volume. RETURN TO TEXT

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